interview

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Q: Another big moment was the Motown 25 performance …

A: I was at the studio editing “Beat It”, and for some reason I happened to be at Motown Studios doing it–I had long left the company. So they were getting ready to do something with the Motown anniversary, and Berry Gordy came by and asked me did I want to do the show, and I told him ‘NO.’ I told him no. I said no because the Thriller thing, I was building and creating something I was planning to do, and he said, ‘But it’s the anniversary …’ So this is what I said to him. I said, ‘I will do it, but the only way I’ll do it is if you let me do one song that’s not a Motown song.’ He said, ‘What is it?’ I said, ‘Billie Jean’. He said, ‘OK, fine.’ I said, ‘You’ll really let me do “Billie Jean?” He said, ‘Yeah.’

So I rehearsed and choreographed and dressed my brothers, and picked the songs, and picked the medley. And not only that, you have to work out all the camera angles. I direct and edit everything I do. Every shot you see is my shot. Let me tell you why I have to do it that way. I have five, no, six cameras. When you’re performing–and I don’t care what kind of performance you are giving–if you don’t capture it properly, the people will never see it. It’s the most selfish medium in the world. You’re filming WHAT you want people to see, WHEN you want them to see it, HOW you want them to see it, what JUXTAPOSITION you want them to see. You’re creating the totality of the whole feeling of what’s being presented, in your angle and your shots. ‘Cause I know what I want to see. I know what I want to go to the audience. I know what I want to come back. I know the emotion that I felt when I performed it, and I try to recapture that same emotion when I cut and edit and direct.

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Tagged as: 2007, Age 42 - 50 2000-2009, interview, Mag: Ebony Magazine

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